Solvent for metals.



UNITED sraa ll k a EDWARD G. BROADWELL, OE CHI GAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO .I. W. MEAKER, JR., OF CHI- GAGO, ILLINOIS. I

. I, sonvnm non mErALs.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April 14, 1908.

Application filed February 28, 1906. Serial No. 303,516.

State of Illinois, have invented certain new and, useful Improvements in Solvents for Metals; and I do hereby declare that the fol lowing is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

This invention relates to a solvent for metals and more particularly to a solvent adapted to be used in the process of refining and treating ores to extract the metals therefrom.

Heretoi ore all solvents utilized for the treatment of ores and refining of metals have been more or less objectionable for the reason that should the metal or a major portion of the metals in solution have a higher solution tension than lead or copper, then a large portion of the wattage used to deposit such metalor metals at the higher potential would Waste in hydro en evolution, es ecially with an insolub e anode. In ot er words previous acid solvents have formed highly dissociated electrolytes' In the sulfonic acid salts of metals havin a solution tension similar-to the metals 0% the earth 7, group this defect is not inherent, and yet,

withal," the sulfonic acid (s ay henolsulfonic acid) is more energetic a so vent than would be oxalic or acetic.

The object of the invention is to provide a chemically avid metal solvent which, owing to its great afiinity for the metals, acts to readily take them into solution from which they may be separated by electrolysis and whlch Wlll form an electrolyte from which the metals may be de osited without such loss of wattage in by rogen evolution and which will at the same time form a very active solvent.

The invention consists in the matters hereinafter described and more fully pointed out and defined in the appended claims.

The solvent conslsts of the, sulfonic acids of the. carbocyclic hydrocarbons, or of the carbocyclic oxy-compounds, such as the phenols, aldehydes and carboxylic acids.

-As a carbon-hydrogen nucleus I refer benzol or phenol as very solub e and chemically avid s onic acids, although naphthalene, anthracene, henanthrene,chrysene and similar hydrocai 'laon com ounds, as found in gas tar and pitch may e utilized order to attain fair solubility in Water.

as hydrocarbons to which may be attached the sulfonic group or groups.

Where an oxidizlng influence in conjunc' tion with a strong chemical combining power is needed, as in theidissolution of the noble metals, gold, silver and those inclusive of and grouped with platinum, a-mono or even a poly-nitro-sulfonic acid is used, to a stron solution of which a small quantity of haloi salt is added, such as common salt, in which latter case the oxygen derived from the nitro group in its reduction to an amido-grou combines with the metal of the haloid sa t (sodium when sodium chlorid is used) thus givin potentially incipient chlorin m a pseu onascent state, which dissolves the noble metal, or metals, while the sodium oxid thus formed, after its immediate conversion to h droxid b the water present, is neutralized y a smal portion of the sulfonic acid used, forming a sodium nitro-sulfonate of the carbo-cyclic series, or a sodic nitrohaloidal-sulfonate of this series, or a sodic nitro-amido-sulfonate, or even a sodic nitrohaloidal-amido-sulfonate of said series, according to the nature of the sulfonic acid used as being best suited for a particular ore, or the proper mechanical properties re uisite in an e be obtained in refining or for the recovery of the metals from the lixivium from ore treatment. Should pitch or tar be used as afoundation material for sulfonation, I find it best to add two or more sulfonic groupsir in or reguline deposits of such, metals as bismuth and antimony, which tend to the formation of dendritic cr stals and treeing the haloidalsulfonic aci s may be used.

Obviously the particular com osition will of the metal or metals being treated and I therefore do not desire to be limited in this application other than as necessitated by the prior art and as stated in the claims.

I claim as mydnvention:

A metal solvent comprising a mono-nitrosulfonic acid and a suitable haloid salt.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EDWARD C. 'BROADWELL.

Witnesses: e s 1 W. W. W ITHENBURY, WM. 0. SMITH.

ectro-deposit of the metal or al 0y to '95 depend to a great extent upon t e character 

